🚪 How much financial freedom would an early buyout offer?

After 23 years at the same company, the dread and burnout are real. You are staring at a buyout offer: six months of wind-down salary plus a $150,000 lump sum. At 52, walking away from a $207,000 salary is terrifying, but with a paid-off home and substantial savings, freedom might be closer than it appears.

Let's calculate if your combined nest egg can support an early exit without looking back.

The math hinges on your spending. With a $720k home paid off and kids financially independent via trust funds, your baseline costs should be low. Also, since you are on your wife's insurance, you avoid the massive burden of paying for private healthcare before Medicare kicks in at 65.

Estimate how much you will need to withdraw from your portfolio each year. If you can keep this number conservative, walking away becomes a mathematical reality rather than just a dream.

Inflation erodes purchasing power, while investment returns grow your balance. By estimating a real return (returns minus inflation), we can project how many years your money will last. A safe, conservative approach assumes moderate returns and steady inflation.

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